Supreme Court turns down acquittal plea of acid attack convict

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the plea for acquittal filed by an acid attack convict, ARY News reported.

The court upheld the trial court’s conviction of 10 years’ sentence to offender Ali Awan.

Convict Ali Awan had thrown acid on a woman in Islamabad in year 2010 and the trial court had awarded him 10 years jail term.

Justice Manzoor Malik of the apex court said that throwing acid is an extremely tormenting crime and asked how a woman will live her remaining life after being disfigured.

“Why don’t the court enhances the conviction period,” Justice Malik asked the defence counsel.

“I doesn’t want enhancement in conviction period,” the counsel said.

In an earlier acquittal plea in the Supreme Court in the same offence Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa declared, “Acid attack offenders do not deserve any clemency.”

Convict Javed Iqbal had approached the apex court with an appeal against the sentence he was awarded for throwing acid on a woman.

The lawyer for the petitioner informed the bench that the female victim of the acid attack had “forgiven” his client.

But Justice Khosa said that there could be no compromise in a case concerning an acid attack.

“The affected woman may well forgive (the convict), but the law cannot forgive an acid attack suspect,” the top judge remarked.

He said, “Burning someone with acid is a bigger crime than murder.”

He said the punishment for throwing acid was life imprisonment and that it was a “crime against the state”.

“The law cannot forgive anyone who burns someone’s face with acid,” he said while rejecting the convict’s plea for acquittal.